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Monday, December 31, 2012

Coming Home - the Pileated Woodpecker

Pileated
woodpeckers disappeared from Southern Michigan shortly after the logging and
wildfires at the turn of the 20th century.Pileateds prefer older growth, drier woods—a
rare commodity in post-settlement Southern Michigan.Five generations of Michiganders growing up
south of Saginaw Bay lived in a world without the pileated, the inspiration for
Walter Lantz’s cartoon creation “Woody the woodpecker.”

I
observed pileated woodpeckers several times in the Upper Peninsula in the
1970s, and later in the Northern Lower Peninsula.But I had been waiting many years for my
first Southern Michigan sighting.Naturalists knew pileateds were moving eastward down the Grand River and
Maple River systems.In May I saw my
first chisel-bill in the Rose Lake Wildlife Area (Clinton County).And in June a pileated woodpecker entertained
my wife and me in our own backyard (Shiawassee County).His return ticket to Shiawassee County had
been punched.

The
Great Lakes region was covered with primeval forests in 1800.The settlers coming here all carried sharp
axes and ambitions to make the wilderness productive.The virgin timber they felled built their
homes and provided heat for them.The
wildlife of these vast forests seemed boundless, enough to feed an emerging
nation.

By
the 1850s swamps were being drained and the forests cleared for the plow.Animal species dependent on large trees would
suffer the most losses, but none more than the saw-whet owl, marten and the
pileated woodpecker.

The
pileated woodpecker is North America’s largest chisel bill, if you discount the
possibility of the ivory-billed still existing in southern swamps.“Sir pileated” is almost the size of a crow
and is known for its calling card—large, deep, rectangular diggings, usually
low on dead and dying trees.This is a
place where you would find carpenter ants—the pileateds favorite food.

The
early settlers and loggers knew the pileated well, referring to him by many
names—log-cock, wood cock, great black woodpecker, cock of the woods, wood
hen.The loggers in particular referred
to him fondly as thunder cock, owing to his raucous presence.When they could hear “thunder cock” in the
distance they knew big timber lay ahead.

When
the big timber was gone so was the woodpecker.By 1900 he was rare in Southern Michigan, probably limited to the rugged
terrain of the Lake Michigan dunes and the lowland riverine forests of the
Kalamazoo and St. Joseph Rivers, in Southwest Michigan. Barrows in his 1912 book “Michigan Bird Life”
recounted some of the last sightings in Southern Michigan: one taken at Bangor,
Van Buren County, in the autumn of 1897, by Frank H. Shuver; one seen at Ann
Arbor March 1, 1899 (Chas L. Cass); two taken near Greenville, Montcalm County,
in 1896 by Percy Selous; and two taken near Okemos, Ingham County in 1905
(Barrows).It is presumed “taken” meant
killed.Professor Barrows was the
curator of the General Museum at Michigan Agricultural College (later becoming
Michigan State University).John
Baumgartner, of Grand Ledge, has studied pileateds for decades.He believes birds were killed in the late
1800s to be sold to museums and collectors.This was a period before birds were protected.

No
doubt pileateds were eaten by settlers because of their large size, like
flickers, robins and blackbirds were. My
limited Michigan research uncovered no reviews of “thunder cock” as table fare,
but the settlers ate everything.

In
the Northern Lower Peninsula the pileated remained abundant until the lumber
barons came for Michigan’s white pine to rebuild Chicago after the great fire
of 1871.Between 1870-1920 enough white
pine was cut from Michigan forests to cover the entire state with a board 1”
thick, and have enough wood left over to cover the state of Rhode Island with a
similar board.The loss of Northern
Michigan’s forest treasure forced the pileated to retreat to the hardwoods and
swamps that remained.

The
Upper Peninsula pileateds fared better because of the vastness of the hardwood
forests and swamps.There they remained
an uncommon bird, but known to all.The
Upper is probably where many Michiganders, like me, got their first glimpse of
the pileated woodpecker.

The
history of Michigan’s thunder cock is very closely tied to the management of
our forests.The bird went from being
common throughout the state to disappearing in the South.And while we anguished over the plight of
Michigan’s wildlife the forest was re-growing.

The
often unnoticed phenomenon of forest-growth is called succession.It occurs on every piece of land, but
succession is defined on a given tract by the soil and water regimen found
there.Each piece of land is attempting
to re-grow its most suitable vegetative cover. The suitable cover for most of Michigan
soil/water conditions is forest.If man
were to ignore a given tract of land long enough, the most suitable, best
adapted, forest would grow.After most
of Michigan was cleared of trees by settlers and lumber interests the forests
attempted to re-grow.However, the
forest was continually “set back” anywhere agricultural production was pursued.

Certain
soil and water characteristics were good for farming as well as trees.Highly productive agricultural soils stayed
in farming while less productive soil couldn’t support a “family farm” and were
abandoned by the mid 20th century.These areas re-grew to the forest cover most appropriate for the
site.Fast forward 60 years, or more,
and the forest recovery is obvious.Michigan today is growing almost three times as much wood as we are
harvesting, meaning the trees are maturing in many places.

Added
to that, our forests today are being managed by a cadre of professional
foresters, with an eye toward sustainability.Foresters recognize the importance of the pileated woodpecker and all
species.Today, most strive to
accommodate woodpeckers in the forest by leaving 5-10 snags and rotted trees
per acre on timber harvest operations.

We
will never again make the mistakes of the past if we are wise enough to follow
the principles of sound natural resource management.Forests are capable of producing wood,
recreation, wildlife and aesthetics, all at the same time.And they also produce large amounts of
oxygen. “Old growth” timber should be a planned component of our forest
management system.

The
recovery of Michigan’s forests provided a one-way ticket back to Southern
Michigan for the pileated woodpecker.There
may be other species just waiting to return home if given a chance.